SECAUCUS, N.J.—Jim Brown wasn’t in the studio at NBA Entertainment headquarters Tuesday night, but there was no shortage of Cleveland icons on hand trying to change the luck of the Cavaliers.

Everybody knew the Cavs needed it and, if the presence of the town’s heroes wasn’t reminder enough, Cleveland itself needed it. Yet the local football heroes past and present knew that whether they were in the room or not, the franchise’s fate in the NBA draft lottery was out of their hands.

But just before 9 p.m. Eastern time, when the next-to-last logo was pulled out of the envelope, the air suddenly became cleaner, the mood lighter and the future brighter. The Decision wasn’t totally fanned away like a bad smell, but landing the top pick definitely freshened an entire city.

For the time being, Cleveland can stop talking about being cursed and start talking about being blessed … with blind, uncontrollable luck.

“It’s almost tough to compare it to anything else,” said Bernie Kosar, former Browns quarterback, friend of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and his era’s version of LeBron James, the local kid raising up the downtrodden hometown team. Kosar was at the lottery with, among others, current Browns Josh Cribbs and Joe Haden, and they all pondered the difference between this and having factors in your control on the field.

“Here, we’re excited because the ping-pong ball went the right way,” Kosar said, “and as it turns out, the No. 1 pick was the other one, the one that was a 2.8 percent chance.”

That would be the ping-pong ball combination belonging to the Clippers, who had traded that pick to Cleveland in the Baron Davis-Mo Williams deal, in what will go down in history as yet another classic Clippers’ move.

“Thank God it worked out,” Kosar continued, with a grin, “but I don’t think I could make a living banking on the 2.8 percent.”

Yes, the Cavaliers needed to get lucky, seeing as how the last time they got lucky on lottery night, eight years earlier, things didn’t end all that happily. It’s been an excruciating year for the Cavaliers, Cleveland and Gilbert. The team went belly-up, from 60-plus wins to 60-plus losses, while LeBron rode Miami to the Eastern Conference finals. The city barely even tried concealing its lingering bitterness, and outside of the city, Gilbert came off as a clown thanks to his epic comic-sans vendetta and guarantee.

Tuesday night, Gilbert wasn’t grimacing and snarling in print; he was glowing in person. True, part of his glow came directly from his representative on the stage, his bespectacled14-year-old son Nick, born with neurofibromatosis; Nick charmed everybody in America in just the few minutes he was on air during the broadcast, as well as everybody he encountered as he bounced around afterward clutching a Cavs-colored ball and the logo card.

“I feel great," Gilbert kept repeating as he bounced from interview to interview. “This is great for everybody, for the Cavaliers and for the city. How about that for luck? We needed it and we got it."

The night could barely have gone better for the franchise. The only team that has jumped to No. 1 from further down in the last decade than the Cavs did from eighth (where the Clippers were) was the Bulls, in 2008, when they went from ninth and landed Derrick Rose.

That’s not enough of an omen for you? The likely No. 1 is another do-it-all freshman point guard, Duke’s Kyrie Irving. And of course, Irving was in the studio, the first time in anyone’s memory that a potential top pick showed up for the lottery in person. (It was a short commute, as he is a West Orange, N.J., native.)

Plus, the Cavs landed the fourth overall choice with their own pick. To recap: the Cavs have the first and fourth picks, they managed to rally from an in-season 26-game losing streak to win four of their last six games, they beat Miami and James at home late in the year, they managed to boost their roster and competitiveness with the Davis deal, and they have a coach in Byron Scott who has taken two teams to the NBA Finals.

Whoever the Cavaliers draft, including Irving, is not expected to bring a LeBron-level impact into the NBA. But he'll have a lot more on hand than what LeBron inherited in 2003.

Plus, the Cavs have the sort of incentive that numbers can’t quantify—unless you count the number of jerseys burned in the streets of Cleveland after The Decision.

“We’ve been through a lot in this city,” said Cribbs, part of the eight-member entourage on hand for the Cavaliers, smothering all other teams’ representation. Cribbs wore an old-school Cavs jersey with his name and Browns’ uniform number on it.

“Going through the stuff with losing LeBron, and then having a losing record–they finished strong, but this is a momentum-builder for our city," Cribbs said. “The baseball team is starting out really well, and the basketball team is looking strong for next year, because of this pick. And for us, when the (NFL) lockout ends, we’re looking to do great things.

“Our city as a whole is looking up.”

All because the balls bounced the right way, for the first time in a long time.

Best of all, it was pointed out to Kosar—none of the possible first picks hail from northern Ohio and thus doesn’t drag that baggage onto his new team.